Conventional information recording media include thin inorganic magnetic materials used for magnetic recording or photo-electromagnetic recording, organic photoisomerization materials used for optical storage, and the like.
Furthermore, Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films, which have thicknesses at the angstrom level or can have their thicknesses controlled at that level, are well known. A thin recording medium having an optical recording property can be manufactured by using an organic material with a photoisomerization property as the molecules of the LB film. For example, a method of using spiropyrane derivatives (E. Ando, J. Hibino, T. Hashida and K. Morimoto, Thin Solid Films, 160, 279 (1988)), and a method of applying azobenzene derivatives (H. S. Blairand and C. B. McArdle, Polymer, 25, 1347 (1984)), are known in the art.
However, the use of conventional magnetic recording media using inorganic magnetic materials has been limited since the thickness of the media cannot be thinner than a few hundred angstroms. The conventional optical recording media applying photoisomerization organic materials, on the other hand, can be made thin due to the use of LB films. However, these optical recording media, which do not have sufficient endurance against processing, cannot be put to practical use.